For many students, the July 4th election will be ours first time voting in a General Election. Personally, I’m afraid of the consequences of my actions, what if I vote against my principles?
I’m sure many others will be fearing the post-voting booth guilt, so here’s a guide on where 6 UK political parties stand on issues such as the conflict in Palestine, workers rights, social justice, and the environment, based on their manifestos of this year. So that you can vote with (or as close as you can, based on our somewhat limited choices) with your principles, whatever they may be.
Each party’s policies have been divided into three sections. Social justice, covering issues of women’s, LGBTQ+, and racial equality, as well as the environment and the NHS. Economics, covering taxes, benefits, workers rights, and addressing poverty. Finally, international and home affairs, covering a wide spectrum of issues from Scottish independence and devolution, to the conflicts in Palestine and Ukraine, and immigration (including the possible impact on student visas).
Conservative Party:
For social justice, the Tories have a big focus on the NHS, pledging to bring down waiting times, by allowing people to get their prescriptions directly from pharmacies, and giving more people the choice to get referred to the private sector to take the strain off of the NHS. The Conservatives also stand by their plan to have no more new petrol or diesel cars being sold by 2035, and their net-zero by 2050 target (we have at least 7 UK general elections until 2050).
Economically, the Tories promise to increase the income tax personal allowance for pensioners, giving them a £95 tax cut in 2025. They’ve also agreed to not raise income tax, capital gains tax, or corporation tax.
In terms of foreign affairs, the Tories have promised to spend an additional £500 million on defence spending for Ukraine, and to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence spending by 2030. Immigration has also been a key policy for the Tories, with Rishi Sunak pledging to “stop the boats”. His approach this election would involve reducing the number of visas for students and care staff, and delaying the flights to Rwanda until after the election, but still promising that they will happen if the Conservatives are re-elected.
For constitutional issues, the Conservatives wish to reinstate national service. The policy would have 18 year olds either join the military full time, or undergo volunteer community service one weekend per month.
Labour Party:
The Labour Party’s take on social justice is centred around institutions, such as the NHS and the police. Labour is promising to increase the number of neighbourhood police, put 13,000 more police on the streets, and build more prisons. This also comes with the promise of trying to foster the public’s trust in the police again by increasing vetting and training of officers, and introduce new powers to punish police forces that don’t comply with police watchdog recommendations .
They also hope to reduce NHS waiting times and promise to deliver two million extra scans, operations and appointments in its first year as government. Additionally, Labour aims to improve the UK’s mental health by hiring 8500 extra mental health professionals, and create a “Labour’s Young Futures” plan, which would aim to put a mental health hub for young people in every community, to help intervene early on young people’s poor mental health. This would be paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools.
Economically, Labour promises low taxes and strict government spending. It also promises to make the minimum wage a real living wage, but they are yet to confirm how much this would be. They also plan to ban zero hour contracts, create a national wealth fund, and increase the number of technical colleges in the UK, as well as invest in building more starter homes.
In terms of foreign affairs, Labour wants to add “up a 1,000 strong Returns Unit to ensure failed asylum seekers and others with no right to be here are removed.” They also want to end hotel use to house asylum seekers, and deploy more police and investigators in a Cross-Border Police Unit to “to go after the smuggler and trafficking gangs who undermine our border security and put lives at risk.” Additionally, they wish to affirm the UK’s commitment to NATO, and keep the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
Liberal Democrats:
The Liberal Democrat’s focus on equality for social justice, promising to ban ALL conversion therapy, make misogyny a hate crime, and protect abortion rights in the UK. They also promise to scrap the anti-protest laws imposed by the Conservative government. In terms of student interests, the Lib Dems want the UK to rejoin the Erasmus programme, which would expand European options for students to study abroad during their degree. They also promise to “cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2045”, and “invest significantly in renewable power so that 80% of the UK’s electricity is generated from renewables by 2030.”
Economically, the Liberal Democrats aim to crack down on tax avoidance and evasion by giving HMRC more resources to tackle tax fraud, as well as providing a one-time Windfall tax on oil and gas traders and providers to help the public play for their energy bills. Additionally, they promise to lower the tax burden on low earners, reverse tax cuts for big banks, and put higher taxes on wealth.
In terms of foreign affairs and constitutional issues, the Lib Dems oppose Scottish independence and a second referendum, but do wish to see more devolution from the UK government to the Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish governments. They want to provide safe and legal routes for asylum seekers and scrap the Illegal Migration Bill, and give those who have been waiting more than 3 months for a decision on whether or not they can stay in the UK the right to work in the UK whilst they wait for a decision. Additionally, the Lib Dems plan to stop “imports from areas with egregious abuses”, and control arm sales to countries that abuse human rights. Finally, they wish to extend the right to vote to 16 and 17 year olds, and scrap the Tories recent voter ID law, which requires you to bring ID (such as a passport or drivers license) to the polling station.
Scottish National Party:
The SNP has not released an official manifesto at this point and so this section remains blank for now, until a manifesto or list of policies is released.
Green Party:
The Greens have not released an official manifesto at this point and so this section remains blank for now, until a manifesto or list of policies is released.
Reform Party:
The Reform Party’s plan for social justice includes banning critical race theory and discussions surrounding the concept of transgenderism in both primary and secondary schools, scrapping all net-zero targets, replacing the 2010 Equality Act, and cutting funding to universities that don’t allow their idea of free speech (they haven’t actually specified what the line is here, hence this being referred to as “their idea of”). Reform also aims to increase the value of apprenticeships, and decrease the number of undergraduate entry places at universities, as “too many courses are simply not good enough and students are being ripped off”.
Economically, Reform promises to raise the starting earning to start paying income tax at to £20,000 per year, and abolish inheritance tax for all estates worth less than £2 million. Any and all estates over this amount will be taxed at 20%, but there will be the option to donate to charity instead of paying the tax (what charities are allowed under this exception have not been listed).
Reform’s aim for foreign affairs include: “Recognise a national Security Threat. Leave the European Convention on Human Rights: Zero Illegal Immigrants to be Resettled in the UK; Offshore Processing for Illegal Arrivals; New Department of Immigration; Pick up Migrants out of Boats and Take Back to France. (We are legally allowed to do this under international treaties).” They also aim to only allow forge in students with “essential skills” to remain in the UK after their course ends (what these skills are has not been mentioned).
The parties listed above are the six “main” parties running in the UK (from a Scottish perspective, Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, are also running down south). However, please do your research into your constituency and who’s running. You can click this link to see who your local MP is and access their voting record, and see who is running in your area. Under this link you can see the results of your constituency’s last general election in 2019, which shows how popular each party is in your area and who is likely to win (this is not an endorsement of the website’s political message, just a resource to check results in your area).
Featured Image Credit: Yaopey Yong, Unsplash
4th year Politics and Journalism student.
Secretary for Brig
The Herald Student Press Awards Columnist Of The Year 2024 (which sorry i’m still not over)
